Turnovers hurt winless Hawks in loss to resilent Panthers

HARLINGEN — With Harlingen South down 21-19 early in the third quarter, it almost looked like the Hawks might pull off the upset in their home opener. But a pair of turnovers, including a back-breaking interception that Weslaco's Dominique Elmore returned for a 50-yard touchdown, along with a Panthers ground game that ate up 306 yards, secured the win for Weslaco Friday night at Boggus Stadium, 42-26.

Despite the loss, Hawks coach Gilbert Leal was encouraged by his team's play.

"I think we improved a lot since last week. We didn't make as many mistakes, but they were timely ones,” Leal said. “We were in the red zone about ten times during the game and didn't come out with any points."

Indeed, in their first four possessions, the Hawks fumbled and lost the ball twice, one around Weslaco's 19-yard line after an impressive 26-yard pass play. Quarterback Zach Flores (2 for 11, 42 yards, 1 TD, 2 interceptions) threw an interception as they were driving for a score, and kicker Joaquin Garcia missed the first of two field goal tries. The Hawks offense finally scored their first points of the season on a 9-yard pass from Flores to Bobby Reyna with 51 seconds left in the first quarter.

In the meantime, the Panthers committed their own miscues, including 2 fumbles. But by the second quarter, they started to establish a rhythm, especially on the ground, and went up 21-13 at the half.

The Panthers ground game took its toll on the Hawks defense in the second half.

"Weslaco does a great job with a misdirection offense," Leal said. "It takes a lot of patience and discipline and they hit us on a couple of big plays and broke it open," which included two John Rojas touchdown runs of 74 and 16 yards. Our kids played real hard tonight, they really did. It's inexperience at crucial times that hurt us.

"I'm proud of the effort of our guys. We're still improving," Leal said. "We're gonna strap it on this next week and get ready to go against Hanna."